“She’s playing on our team,” Colton insisted.
His answer stunned her. Last night he walked away from a proposal. In less than twenty-four hours he had not one, but two arguments with her brother. The mixed signals confused Lacey.
“What makes you say that?” Paul argued.
“The ring on her finger.”
Then it made sense. Colton was trying to prove to Paul that he was strong enough to take care of his sister.
Paul who had taken the older brother role seriously, even into adulthood, replied, “Her last name is still Sanders.”
Colton pointed at the rest of the team who wore matching shirts. “Really, you didn’t even get her a shirt.”
“Guys. It’s okay. I can sit this one out.” Lacey pointed towards the booths. “I can go get some more ice cream.”
The look on Colton’s face said there was no going to get any ice cream. At least not in the next twenty minutes. He took hold of her hand and guided her towards his end of the field. Lacey grimaced her apology at her brother and followed Colton.
Instead of being angry like she expected, Paul watched them walk away with a smile of approval. Her heart settled and soared at the same time, and the words her brother and Gracie had said so many times came back to her. Except this time the pronoun had changed. Lacey thought to herself, “I love living in a small town.”
They joined the huddle, and Colton’s brother nodded his hello to Lacey. His team had enough women without her playing, so they sent her to the sideline. Colton walked her to sit beside his mother, and it clicked. The argument between Colton and Paul was for her benefit. He may not fight with her, but he would fight for her.
Colton’s mother leaned in and said, “You sure you don’t need some new socks?”
Lacey wrinkled her face in confusion.
Colton’s mother explained, “That was an interesting display of ownership over there. I thought for sure both of them were getting ready to mark their territory the way a dog claims its tree.” She pat Lacey’s hand. “You went with the right team.”
They sat companionably in silence while taking in the game. Taryn pulled Paul’s flag ten yard short of making a touchdown. Lacey didn’t know whether to cheer Taryn or encourage her brother. Uncertain of what to do she sighed heavily.
Most likely in response to the sigh, Colton’s mother said, “This is nice, the last time we met we didn’t get much of a chance to talk. Otherwise, I’d have thanked you for being such a good influence on my son. I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time.”
Unsure of what to say, Lacey smiled in response. “Thank you. He makes me happy too.”
They both watched the game. After every play, Lacey made sure Colton saw her clap for him. Her brother couldn’t fault her for doing that. Fifteen minutes into the game the score was still 0-0. If neither team scored a point, they had to play a ten-minute overtime game.
Colton’s brother, Brian, called a time out and pointed to Taryn who was bent over on the field. Across from the field, it was easy to see that she was having a hard time breathing. Her husband ran to the side of the field and grabbed an inhaler out of a bag and brought it to Taryn. She sucked in two puffs of medicine and signaled with a wave of her hand that she was going to be okay.
“It looks like you’re in,” Colton’s mother said.
Lacey’s face fell. “What?”
“The rule is they have to have four women on the field. Taryn isn’t playing so you’ll have to play, or they’ll forfeit.”
Lacey hesitantly stood. She was good at cheering for other people. Being in the middle of the action was not her comfort zone. “It’ll be fine,” she told herself. From what she saw, the men did most of the work. When she got to the huddle, Brian, who had taken on the role of team captain, said, “Okay some of us will go short, and one of us will go long. Just get the ball to one of us, and we’ll pass it to each other.”
“Who’s the quarterback?”
“It was Taryn’s turn. If you don’t quarterback, we lose.”
“Oh, no,” Lacey’s mouth fell open.
“One of us will be close to you. Just get the ball to us,” Brian commanded.
In an attempt to make her feel better Colton’s other brother, Darryl, said, “Nobody’s scored yet, so don’t feel bad about how things turn out.”
Lacey nodded and took her position.
The hiker passed the ball to her. The movement on the field was so quick it was hard for her to find who was on her team. From across the field, she heard Colton call her name. She looked to see that everybody had swarmed close and left the far end of the field open. Lacey hooked her elbow and threw the ball in his direction. It spiraled perfectly. Colton followed the arc and took a couple steps back to catch it. With nobody around him, he had a free course to the end zone.
Everyone froze for a second. The Hughes team erupted in yells of joy. Colton ran with his arms in the air to Lacey. He picked her up and swirled her in a circle.
Her cousin said, “Who told us to go for a short pass?”
Gracie’s brother-in-law asked, “Who taught her to throw like that?”
“I did, you nimrod,” Paul grumbled. He used his pointer and index finger to point at his eyes and then back at Lacey to say, “I’m watching you.” Then he smiled and said, “Nice play. Now you know why I wanted you on my team.”
He jogged away to join the huddle on the other side of the field.
Nobody scored in the last two minutes remaining, and the game ended with the Hughes team winning with a score of 1-0. The teams lined up to shake hands. When Colton and Paul met, Colton said, “Next year we’ll be able to merge teams.” Paul smirked and raised his right eyebrow. “We’d be a force to reckon with.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Piece Of Cake
Lacey gazed into her husband’s eyes. The band of gold that circled the light brown irises glowed. His eyes were so beautiful it almost hurt her to look at them. They drew her to him, and she moved to be closer to him. Colton wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her. He released her with a smile that said just a little more time. She reached for the knife, and she placed it on the cake. He placed his hand on top of hers and a spark shot through Lacey’s arm and went straight to her heart. With it, the vision of their first touch at the high school graduation came to her. Her mind returned to the reason for the touch this time. She smiled, and the camera flashed once, twice and a third time. Colton counted to three, and they pressed into the knife to make the first cut into their wedding cake.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Keep In Touch
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Copyright Information
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Piece of Cake Copyright © 2017 Merri Maywether. All Rights reserved. Cover designed by Mariah Sinclair. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address me
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Copyright © 2017 Merri Maywether
All rights reserved.
Piece of Cake: Small Town Stories Novella #1 Page 6
